SALT LAKE CITY -- Right field is ridiculously short and center field is quite vast. So the biggest issue for BYU at Franklin Covey Field isn't having chances to score.

Chalk up some more frustration for the Cougars on Thursday as they stranded 10 runners and lost at Utah, 5-3.

It's no wonder BYU is 20-34 (8-14 Mountain West), considering how runs failed to be produced even when the odds were stacked in its favor. Two different innings, BYU had a runner on third base with less than two outs.

"We can't afford to not execute," coach Vance Law said.

BYU had as many hits as the Utes, nine, and left the same number of runners on base. The third inning, score tied at 2, was the first failure to advance a runner the most crucial 90 feet. Maybe not more important, but probably more dramatic, was the eighth inning.

Trailing 5-3, runners on second and third -- Utah forced a fielder's choice at home before a strikeout ended the threat.

Utah (23-24, 10-12) scored its last run in the sixth, with two outs, on a solo home run by Nick Kuroczko. The sophomore third baseman, who made it a three-run lead, hadn't hit a blast before the past two games. His second one flew over the right-field wall, which is 315 feet away (not particularly hard to reach with aluminum bats, though Law laments that he doesn't have many left-handed, pull threats).

BYU countered the homer with an RBI single in the seventh from Kent Walton.

Utah coach Bill Kinneberg, whose team has won seven consecutive games, thought it was "a really good college baseball game" after the second inning -- when his starting pitcher, Stephen Fife (7-4), and BYU's Jake Wortham, settled down.

Both made it partially into the seventh inning. Fife gave up all three earned runs while Wortham (4-5) gave up every Ute score (all but one earned).

"They're as good of first five hitters as any lineup in the (MWC)," Kinneberg said of BYU. "You feel good about getting those guys out."

Leadoff hitter Sean McNaughton barely missed a home run in the ninth. He was even closer to nearly getting knocked out of the game. Running bases in the first he took a throw to the face.

The teams will continue the series tonight at 6.

Law knows his team needs more timely hits, and perhaps more powerful ones. The Cougars went for extra bases just once, Jonathan Cluff's double (18th of season). Utah had a triple to complement two homers, including Corey Shimada's leadoff bomb in the first. Cody Guymon followed that with the three-bagger.